LESSON
SAMPLES
Seesaw and FreshGrade are both digital portfolios that document student learning. Both educators and students can upload documents, videos, audio, pictures and/or links to student profiles. As such, the digital portfolios allow for thoughtful reflection and self assessment. The new learner is one who is actively engaged in his or her own learning. They are encouraged to take responsibility of their learning as they reflect and critically assess their work. Students will work towards goals that are designed with the aid of the teacher. The new teacher, according to Kalantzis & Cope (2010) is “a purposeful learning designer [who] is able to ‘let go’, allowing learners to take more responsibility for their own learning” (p. 205).
To introduce your students to using Seesaw, you can print out the template below, as provided by Seesaw (2016).
While nearly every assessment or task can
be documented using digital portfolios, below
are lessons that demonstrate how easily digital
portfolios can be implemented into your classroom.
Lesson One: Toy World (Primary-Full Lesson)
This lesson is part of a unit designed for students to develop and implement their own design ideas. Students will develop a plan by making a drawing, with labels, for a moving toy. The toy will be built using limited materials. Students will be able to upload pictures and videos of their finished product to their individual student portfolios.
Students will:
- demonstrate curiosity and responsiveness to scientific and technological ideas and evidence
- gain satisfaction from their efforts to investigate, to design, to make, and to use technology
Focus Question: If you were to make a toy that moves, what would it be? How would you go about making it?
RESOURCES/AIDS:
IWB, whiteboard or large paper.
Paper
Milk cartons
Round Cardboard (for wheels) ie. toilet paper rolls
Skewers
Glue
Elastic bands
Paper clips
Plastic bottle caps
TEACHER DOES:
-
Explain to students that they will be designing and making a toy that moves out of the materials shown (put on table/floor items).
2. Show and explain how to draw a toy (say a car) using a milk carton with arrows pointing to parts and labelling them. Writing on IWB words that can be used.
3. Have students draw up their design, and then once finished, show teacher. If finished, then they can make their toy.
4. Rove around room helping/asking questions. At this point, the teacher can also take videos to add to each of the student's digital portfolios.
5. Once finished, have students show the class their toy and demonstrate how it moves. This can also be documented and added to the portfolios.
STUDENT DOES:
-
Students listen and pay attention.
2. Students assist with words to use and assist with drawing the toy and labelling it
3. Students show the class their toy as a presentation
4. Students take a picture of their toy and add a voice note explaining how they made it on their digital portfolios.
4. Drawing gets glued in their science journal and also documented into their digital portfolio.
Quick Lesson Ideas
Daily Number
(MULTIPLE DEVICES)
Students are learning long addition, using two strategies – traditional and expanded.
-
To see if students are grasping the concept they can go into Seesaw app and add a drawing of them solving a math question using either traditional or expanded methods.
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Afterwards they can record themselves talking about each step and why they did it.
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Teacher can go through later and view student work to see if each student is grasping the concept.
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Teacher can simply ‘like’ the artifact or leave a comment that is viewable only on the student portfolio (i.e. to the student or parents).
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(SHARED DEVICES)
Students complete “Daily Number” in their notebooks – using dice students roll to create a 3-digit number. Using it as a heading in their notebook they have to:
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Write the number in words
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Draw the number
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Write the number in expanded form
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Write the number before and the number after
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Number + 100
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Is the number even or odd?
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Number – 10
After completing this in their notebook students take their work to the iPad station and use Seesaw or FreshGrade to upload their work to their digital portfolio.
Long Addition
Take a photo of a book you read this week. Use the voice recorder to describe your favorite character in the story.
Language Arts
Art
Identify different colors, forms, textures or patterns around your classroom or school. Use the camera to document what you find and use the voice recorder to compare and contrast them.
Educational Field trips
While on a field trip, the teacher can take pictures of students. When back in the class, students can go into the portfolio and add captions/voice recordings of what they learned in this snap shot.
Math
Post a math problem on the board (such as a part-part-whole grid) and have students take a picture & use the drawing tool to fill in their answer. Have them record an explanation of how they came up with their answer.
Seesaw
For more great ideas, visit the Seesaw and freshgrade websites
FreshGrade